Not that Porsche lacks experience with off-road vehicles. Its engineering wing has developed several all-wheel-drive military vehicles, and specially prepared Porsche racecars ruled the grueling Paris-Dakar raid through the North African desert in the 1980s. Yet compared to automotive giants like General Motors, Toyota or Daimler-Chrysler, Porsche is a cottage manufacturer, with a tiny fraction of the production volume. For 50 years the company carved its niche with quick, nimble, relatively small sports cars, cars built on values almost diametrically opposed to those represented by a big SUV. It speaks to our changing automotive tastes, if not the times, that Porsche felt the need to invest in an SUV and a new factory to build it.

Ready or not, the most anticipated new Porsche in decades, the Cayenne, is here. The company's SUV is what many expected it would be: technically slick and remarkably fast, with on-road handling that belies its bulk. The Cayenne also delivers what most SUV buyers demand, including decent cargo space, more than enough capability for casual off-road use and impressive towing capacity. For style, pure performance and a balance of sport-utility virtues, the Porsche Cayenne is very tough to be beat.